Aeli and her band met up with a hired hand driving a horse and cart to the Vale. This driver, Ruffalo, could only speak about the rumor of goblins being seen in the hills. Upon arriving in Valetown, Aeli and her band were summoned by the Patriarch, the mayor of Valetown and spiritual leader of the Vale. He spoke of cattle being eaten or carried off and a strange fallen tower discovered by a hunter tracking the killer of cattle. No hunters would approach that tower and the Patriarch had petitioned Lord Risz for months for assistance. Apparently Aeli and her band were now that assistance.

Aeli and company found the path and crumbling tower that the hunter had spoken of, as well as a second entrance. They found undead zombines skeletons as well as a nasty ghoul that had apparently been the mysterious source of cattle death. They also found an extensive library and symbols which lead the Patriarch to surmise that the tower belonged to the mysterious Alaxus. This Alaxus had long ago enslaved the Vale and performed unspeakable magics – he had also created the school of Um Loran.

Aeli began to explore the second entrance that seemed to extend into a hillside, but she was confronted by a bridge over a deep chasm guarded by skeletons. Unable to get around the skeletons, Aeli returned to town to much acclaim over the death of the cattle killer. Celebrated as “The Hero of Valetown”, Aeli decided to take a diversion for a few days and hunt down the bandits that had been preying on caravans going from Westport to Valetown.

She was successful in luring the bandits into a trap where Tironell could perform his magic and immobilize many of them. In the ensuing confusion with returning with the bandits to Valetown, Aeli was briefly jailed, but then released.

Aeli and company returned to the tower with a cleric and a giant slingshot to destroy the bridge guarding skeletons, which she successfully defeated. However, after some more exploration, they came to a great cavern with a dragon made of smoke guarding it! It intoned a threat to her and Aeli decided to flee and discover more information about smoke dragons before returning.

The Patriarch asked Aeli to take the bandits to the Vale for judgment by Lord Risz. Upon returning the bandits to Westport, Aeli was informed that more bandits had seemingly been appearing out of nowhere to attack and steal ships from the port itself! Aeli met with Nikodemos to learn more of the smoke dragon. Nikodemos would need time, and gold, to find books and sources to learn more of this strange creature. In the meantime, Aeli decided to investigate the Tower of Zenopus a bit more to learn if the bandits were using it as a hideout.

Aeli captured a goblin from the tower and took it back to Lord Risz for questioning. She returned to the tower again and discovered a strange feature deep in the dungeon – a mask in the wall that speaks when the sundial has light cast on it to 4’o-clock. It would answer questions at length and was a unique find! Aeli asked the mask about Calypso, but it knew nothing of him. So Aeli pressed on. She discovered an underground beach that led to the sea, a group of pirates and a kidnapped daughter (Lemunda) of the rich merchant Lenovo. They returned Lemunda to Lenovo who rewarded Aeli and her band richly.

A few days later, Aeli escorted Nikodemos to the speaking mask. Apparently the mask had been created by Zenopus himself! The mask admitted that Zenopus had studied the work of Kellus and felt that Kellus was exploring the history and biology of strange mythical creatures like dragons. It knew nothing else of Kellus. Nikodemos was thrilled at the discovery of the mask and said that he now owed Aeli a great deal. Nikodemos gave Aeli the key to defeating the smoke dragon – since it was a construct, find the object that the smoke dragon emanated from/was tied to and destroy it.

Upon returning to Valetown with this information, Aeli and company was unhappy to learn that the Patriarch had attempted to remove the library from Alaxus’s tower. Apparently that effort had been foiled by the return of more undead!

Aeli returned to the second hillside entrance and fought more undead until she reached the smoke dragon. In a difficult battle, Aeli was able to defeat the smoke dragon and found a rich reward. She also discovered a secret entrance that had been covered up in rubble – she had discovered the lost tomb of Alaxus! Her and her band pried the door open and entered the tomb only to find themselves fleeing a gelatinous cube that caused Aeli to lose her magical sword! During their trip back, the band was robbed of the rest of their treasure and equipment by sneering goblins of the Green Iron Fist. This marked a very low point for Aeli and her band.

The Patriarch kindly refitted Aeli and her followers and they set off back to the tomb. The Patriarch had told Aeli of the legend of Alaxus’s defeat at the hands of a mage-hunter and this mage hunter’s magical sword – the Blade of Runes. Upon returning to the tomb, Aeli and her band destroyed the gelatinous cube, recovered her sword and continued to explore the tomb – only to find it was now the lair of rat-people! Despite being outnumbered, Aeli managed to retreat from the tomb and return to it again later, investigating the hill to see if they could find out how the ratlings were entering the tomb. They did find the entrance, but decided to return to Valetown to re-equip and think over their plans further.

This is where the adventure stands as of now.